In recent years, the use of lightweight cast magnesium and cast aluminum alloy has become extremely popular. As a result of the popularity of such wheels, the art of manufacture and design of such wheels has become competitive, crowded and highly developed.
Due to the manner in which cast metal wheels are made, they embody certain aesthetic characteristics which readily distinguish them from formed steel wheel and wire spoke wheel structures. Those distinguishing characteristics are aesthetically viewed as being very modern and such that they are a total departure from old and traditional design.
A large segment of the public interested in automobile design desires to retain certain old or traditional design characteristics in their automobiles. To this end, a great number of those persons particularly favor equipping automobiles with old fashioned wire spoke wheels, which wheels are considered to typify utmost elegance in past or old-time automobile design.
Due to the extraordinary high cost of genuine wire spoke wheels and due to the constant and very costly maintenance such wheels require, the number of persons who can afford to purchase and maintain such wheels is rather small.
In the recent past, to satisfy the desire of those who want to equip their automobile wheels with wire spoke wheels, those in the art of making cast metal wheels have developed and manufactured cast metal wheels of substantially standard construction with decorative wire spokes, in patterns, incorporated therein and which fairly simulate genuine wire spoke wheels. The foregoing simulated wire spoke wheel structures are notably less costly than genuine wire spoke wheels and are substantially maintenance free, when compared with genuine wire spoke wheels.
In some cast metal wheels with decorative wire spokes, provided by the prior art, the spokes are simply lengths of heavy and strong wire stock, arranged in some desired pattern about their related wheels, and have opposite ends engaged in socket openings or the like established in the wheels to retain the spokes in assembled relationship therewith. The ends of the spokes fit tightly in their related socket openings and the spokes are normally biased and set in compression between their opposite ends so that they are securely held against displacement and do not tend to vibrate or move about freely in a manner that would generate noise, undesired wear and the like.
In other instances, the ends of the spokes in such wheel structures have been set in place by staking the metal of the wheel about the socket openings in which the ends of the spokes are engaged.
In yet other instances, the ends of the spokes are fixed in related socket openings or the like in the wheels by deposits of epoxy cement or the like.
In all of those wheels of the general character referred to above, which we are familiar with, the decorative wire spokes are installed and set, one at a time, and are such that when installed, they cannot be easily and conveniently removed for purposes of repair, replacement and/or cleaning of the wheel structure. In all those above referred to wheel structures, the wire spokes are manually installed one at a time and their installation requires a slow time-consuming and therefore costly process of assembly.
Throughout the development of the art of cast metal wheels with decorative wire spokes, the need of a structure and/or a process which makes assembly quick, easy and economical has been recognized but not satisfactorily satisfied. Further, the need and/or desirability of such wheel structures wherein the wire spokes and wheel assemblies can be easily, conveniently and quickly disassembled and reassembled without the use of special tools and/or the excercise of special skills, to effect repair and cleaning of the wheels, has been recognized, but never fully satisfied.
As a result of the above and in light of other shortcomings found in those cast metal wheels with decorative wire spokes provided by the prior art, many potential purchasers and users of such wheels have chosen not to buy those wheels and have purchased one of many different makes of sheet metal, pan-like wheel cover structures which are provided with and carry patterns of wire spokes and which are intended to aesthetically simulate genuine wire spoke wheels. Such decorative wheel covers are such obvious imitations of genuine wire wheels that they are considered to be cheap, tinsile-like imitations which a great number of people will not buy.
Still further, in the automobile industry there is an ever-increasing number of instances where the geometry of the suspension systems of automobiles requires the central mounting disc portions of the wheels to occur on radial planes which are in close proximity with the outside or front radial planes of the automobile wheel rims. Such a relationship is common in automobiles with front wheel drive. In such cases there is insufficient space between the hub or disc portions of the wheel and the rims to accommodate a pattern of wire spokes. Accordingly, the prior art has failed to provide a satisfactory cast wheel structure with decorative wire spokes for those wheels where the central or disc portions of the wheels are on radial planes in close proximity to the outer or forward radial planes of the wheel rims.